Dog Days (Punk Niall Horan AU)
by enexral
Summary: Ellie Kinder is an anti-social teenage girl who is ultimately forced to live with her grandparents for the summer. During her 'vacation,' she meets a boy with more tattoos and piercings than she can count, and he instantly rubs her the wrong way. Though for the months that she spends in Sarasota, she finds herself being drawn to the boy, even if she refuses to admit to it.


I sighed lightly as I stepped onto the damp pavement, my bag slung lazily around my shoulder as I pushed some blonde hair behind my ear. I heard my mother say something about how this would be a great experience for my life, but I just tuned her out and studied my surroundings. Sarasota was just how I imagined it.

"Ellie! Come on – we don't have all day!" my mother snapped, closing the trunk before making her way toward my grandparents house. I followed behind her, but at a slow pace, obviously not wanting to be here.

"Still have time to take me home," I muttered, but she only replied with "Shut up and smile."

Just as she said this, the door opened to reveal my short, fake blonde grandmother. I instantly forced a smile onto my face as she hugged my mother, then me as well.

"Hello, hello!" she greeted happily.

"Hi, mom! How's dad?" my mother asked as we stepped into the small beach house.

"He's out at Publix getting some groceries."

As the two older women conversed, I set my bags down on the polished, hardwood floor and scanned the area. The whole area had a beach-esque style, seeing as the walls were painted a pale yellow with cabana furniture and seashells decorating the tables and shelves. I had to admit that my grandmother knew how to decorate her house.

"Ellie! Oh, it's so great to see you. How's school?" the woman exclaimed, forcing me to discontinue my thoughts and turn around and look at her.

"Well, last Friday was my last day," I forced out, trying to seem just as happy as her. I then was consumed into a boring conversation about how high school would be the best days of my life and how I needed to actually try out for sports and be active in clubs for my senior year.

I mentally rolled my eyes at everything she was saying and gave my mother cold stares when she would butt in and agree. I didn't like my school sports because everyone who tried out were extremely stuck up and conceited, same with the clubs.

I tried to explain my hatred for school and how I would much likely enjoy sitting in my room all alone on my computer than be out conversing with people I despised. But too no avail, my mother would always disagree with me. She believed I would turn into a hermit before I graduated. What she didn't know was that I already did during my freshman year.

"You need to try and make some friends Ellie, it'll be a lot harder once you go out into the real world," my grandmother spoke, but I just nodded and picked up my bags whilst saying, "Yeah – I'm going to go unpack."

Before the two women could say anything else, I quickly made my way upstairs and into the guest room in which I would be staying at. The walls were painted a light blue and I was surprised to see that I had a balcony view of the beach nearby. I also noticed how there was house right next to my grandparents, and was a bit annoyed to see a window parallel to mine. That meant I would have to close the shades every time I changed or if I just wanted some privacy.

I turned to examine the rest of the room and sighed out of relief to see how large the area was. There was a queen sized bed in the corner, a middle sized closet, and a table by a window with an old, bulky computer set on it. That meant they must've had wifi, which made me a bit more happier to be there. There were also a few cabinets sporadically placed around, obviously for clothes.

I moved over and sat down on the edge of the neatly made bed and chewed on my cheek.

_I don't want to be here. _

The only reason I was there was because I caught my mom cheating on my dad and I confronted her about it. The whole thing spiraled down into a huge argument and on the last day of school, she told me how it would be best if I spent the summer at my grandparents. It was only because she thought I would tell my father, and she just wanted the few months to try and fix everything. I of course disagreed, but she refused to change her mind since she couldn't stand to look at me after I knew what she'd been doing to my loving father for months.

It did upset me considering I believed my parents were a perfect, happy couple who desired nothing but to wake up next to each other every morning for the rest of their lives. It upset me because what I believed was wrong. But I refused to show it.

The only person who knew of the affair was me, my mother, and the man she'd been sleeping with. Not even my own grandparents knew. She just told them that if I spent the summer at their house, it would strengthen our family relationship and also let me experience some fun adventures that life gave me. I can't believe they actually bought that bullshit.

"Hey, I'm leaving."

I looked up and seen my mother standing in the doorway, a distressed expression on her face. I replied with nothing but silence.

"I have work tomorrow, so I'm going to go ahead and head home."

Again, I said nothing.

"Love you."

I just pursed my lips, nodded, and glanced out the balcony window. Eventually, I heard her sigh and walk back down the stairs.

It pissed me off how she could easily

act like nothing happened. How she could easily act like the word "love" meant something to her, even though she'd been using it with my father the whole time she was cheating on him.

I rolled my eyes in disgust before I stood to my feet and wandered outside onto the balcony, eyeing my mother. I watched as she hugged my grandmother goodbye and got into her car, only to back out onto the road and drive off.

After that, I decided to unpack. It was only three o'clock in the evening once I finished, but I ended up getting enveloped in tumblr even though the shabby computer and weak wifi made everything super laggy.

Finally, once I was fed up with the slowness of the technology, I made my way downstairs. I wanted to go out and explore the place, seeing as I had nothing better to do.

When I reached the bottom of the steps, I seen my grandfather sitting on the sofa, a newspaper covering his face while the smell of cigars surrounded his presence.

"Hey, grandpa," I greeted, making him lower the papers and study my appearance. I could see a small smile present itself on his face.

"You've grown so much since I last saw you," he spoke.

I nodded in agreement, even though the last time he saw me was only two months ago.

"Do you know where grandma is?"

"I'm right here, honey!" my grandmother shouted, coming out of the kitchen whilst wiping her hands on the apron she was wearing, "What is it?"

"I'm gonna go out, look around," I replied, gripping the strap on the backpack slung loosely around my shoulder.

"Ok, darling. Be back before sun down, I'll have dinner waiting on you."

I went to say goodbye, but she cut me off.

"There's a bicycle in the garage if you want to use it – better than walking."

She gave me a side hug, kissed my temple, and went back to the kitchen. I took that as the chance to leave, and I did.

After dragging the vintage, red bike out of their messy garage, I found myself getting situated on the seat in front of the house. The vehicle looked like it came out of an old 60's movie – the only thing it was missing was a basket.

After setting my feet on the pedals, I started down the unmarked road. I heard loud music playing, maybe Slipknot or Machine Head? My blue eyes quickly scanned the area, only to land on a boy sitting on a couch in his front yard, a stereo placed right next to him.

_Why was there a couch in his front yard? His front yard looked more like a living room if anything. _

As I grew closer, I noticed a beer in his hand, a hamburger in the other, and some ray bands covering his eyes. I also noticed how he was wearing an overly sized tank top and some skinny jeans, revealing his tattooed arms and torso. But he wasn't even wearing shoes.

_Who was this guy?_

The music came to a stop and that's when I realized he had turned off the stereo and looked at me, making me quickly avert my eyes to the road.

"Hey!" he yelled, standing to his feet.

I decided to slow down to a halt and glance over at the boy, watching as he slowly made his way across the lawn. In the process, he lowered his shades down the bridge of his nose to reveal his blue eyes.

He finally reached the end of the grass and the start of the sidewalk, but didn't say anything – only looked at me. I could tell he was scanning me up and down, seeing as he was standing right in front of me and didn't bother to hide the fact that he was. I instantly regretted wearing shorts and a tank top, even if it was hot out.

"What?" I snapped, making him look back up in my eyes.

"You livin' with Martha and Chad?" he asked huskily. I could see that he had a tongue ring from the way his lips moved and also noticed that he had a thick Irish accent. Besides his tongue piercing, he had his lips, nose, and eyebrows pierced, not to mention his gauged ears.

"Not living, staying," I nodded, pursing my lips before looking down the road. It was silent for a moment and I grew awkward, but luckily he continued speaking.

"Why're you staying with those two prudes?"

"Excuse me?"

Even though I didn't want to stay with my grandparents, I was extremely annoyed how he basically bashed them right in front of me.

"I'm staying with them because they're my grandparents." My tone was harsh and brief, but it didn't seem to phase the lad since a faint smirk played on his face.

"How does a sexy thing like you come from two, old twats?"

My mouth fell open at his crudeness. How could someone be so disgusting to a person he'd just met.

"Fuck off, dick," I snapped, going to start off on my bike but he stopped me by holding the handlebars.

"Only to you, princess."

I scoffed loudly and pulled away, only to quickly push off away from the boy.

I couldn't believe that that pig was my neighbor. Where were his parents? Where were his morals?

I rolled my eyes lightly when I heard him yell something after me, but ignored the comment.

After an hour or two of roaming around town and exploring tiny shops hidden in alleyways, my stomach grew hungry and I noticed the sun was beginning to go down. I needed to head home for dinner. During my way back, I accidentally collided into a girl jogging. After picking myself up and apologizing to the stranger, I learned that her name was Serena and that she had just graduated high school. I also learned that she lived only a few houses down from mine. After conversing for a mere twenty minutes, we scheduled to hang out the next day, when she wasn't sweaty and exhausted and when I wasn't forced to go home to my grandparents.

When I finally returned home, I took my dinner up to my room and finished the plate off rather quickly. The rest of the night resulted in me cursing over the dinosaur called my computer, and taking a shower before bed.

As I entered my room, towel snuggly wrapped around my chest, I walked over to my window to close the curtains. Before I did so, I glanced into the window of the neighboring house and spotted a familiar blonde, sitting in a chair playing video games. He looked over and caught me staring, only to examine my attire and smirk. I quickly closed the blinds in disgust and clenched my jaw.

How could someone be so fowl? Ihad only met the boy a few hours ago and I already despised him and his punk appearance. I didn't even know his name and his little, taunting smirk annoyed the shit out of me. How was I going to spend my whole summer living next to this twat?


End file.
